odw January 2, 2018 at 8:36am

PAN -- the beating heart of music | Kim Johnson | TEDxPortofSpain

Kim Johnson takes us on an unlikely path into music. In his talk he explores the subtleties of the one of the worlds most motivating and inspiring movements. His insights challenge our common conceptions of musical practice and its performance.

Kim Johnson is currently the Director of the Carnival Institute of Trinidad and Tobago, and is considered by some to be the foremost historian of pan. He studied law at UWI, Cave Hill, but dropped out of Law School. He then worked with illegal migrants in Guadeloupe and Suriname, and with a charitable foundation in the Dominican Republic and Uruguay. In the 1990s he worked as a journalist. In 2001 he was awarded a PhD in sociology from UWI, Mona and thereafter worked as a regional manager for Fujitsu Caribbean, and then as a Senior Research Fellow at The Academy for Arts, Letters, Culture and Public Affairs at The University of Trinidad and Tobago. In 2011 he was awarded the Anthony Sabga prize for excellence in Arts & letters.

odw December 31, 2017 at 9:14am

“The more you know, the more you know you don't know.”

― Aristotle

When you know what you don't know, you have KNOWLEDGE.

Steelband Music in Trinidad and Tobago: The Creation of a People's Music

A 32 min. educational video on the social history of the development of steelpan music in Trinidad and Tobago. Interviews with steel band pioneers, photos from T&T. Produced and narrated by Professor Emeritus of Sociology William R. Aho, Ph.D., Rhode Island College, Providence, RI, USA.

odw December 31, 2017 at 6:33am

Bertie Marshall - The Steel Pan Visionary - by Dalton Narine

Russell Providence December 30, 2017 at 11:47pm

“The more I learn, the more I realize how much I don't know.” Albert Einstein

The discussion on the origin, or origins of the pan is undoubtedly a debatable one. A debate I suspect may linger on for the next century. I was once lectured to by the late Ian "Teddy" Belgrave in response to my question on the topic, who invented the pan, marketed as the only percussion instrument to be invented in the twentieth century, and where exactly was that pan invented, and to date Teddy's response makes the most sense to me in the absence of any conclusive documented information, save what has been related by the elders dead or alive, through the oral tradition.

In the preamble to his hypothesis, Teddy asked me, who do I believe invented small goal football, and where do I believe that popular reduced version of the conventional game originated?

Teddy went on to relate, that in the absence of proper facilities, meaning, a playing field within the following dimensions: Standard–> Touch line (length): 90 m (100 yd) to 120 m (130 yd); Goal line (width) : 45 m (50 yd) to 90 m (100 yd) International matches –> Touch line (length): 100 m (110 yd) to 110 m (120 yd); Goal line (width) : 64 m (70 yd) to 75 m (80 yd), where there was a need or desire to play football anywhere and everywhere, available spaces may have been utilized, and appropriate modifications made to facilitate a match, namely size of the pitch, number of players, duration of match etc.

Similarly, in the absence of conclusive accurate documentation, he went on the describe a need that would have existed in the absence of, and suitability of conventional instruments as musical accompaniment for activities engaged in by the underprivileged in society. Therefore of necessity, the creativity of fertile minds may have gone to work simultaneously, singly, or imitated ,experimenting with whatever, or the most suitable raw materials that were available to produce the precursor to what we know today as the pan. He went on to suggest that all of the claims by southerners, westerners, easterners, and persons then resident in the capital city, and it's eastern fringe my be credible, and that is how he would be inclined to document the origin of the pan for posterity.

As a respected educator, it is not unlikely that other versions of his thesis on the subject may be on record for reference, as what I have described above is the product of an informal conversation.

It would be interesting to hear the opinion of members of this forum on the foregoing.

odw December 30, 2017 at 10:25pm

Lord Kitchener - Pan Birthday extended version...